Thank God Anyway

God's Warrior · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 6:00 am Post subject: Thank God Anyway

This was sent to me by my longtime dear friend Vicki who is a Christian author. Since I have been suffering from many of the same thoughts, I am most appreciative of her article. Thanks Vicki.

Thank God Anyway
By Vicki Huffman

I am writing this on November 4 a few hours after the election results came in. To say I am disappointed in the presidential election results is a huge understatement. In nearly 40 years of voting, I have never been this disappointed. Let me say it clearly: for me it wasn’t a racial thing. I can name several black politicians I would gladly see in the White House: J. C. Watts, Michael Steele, or Alan Keyes. Or Condaleeza Rice. But Barack Obama holds none of the same values they or I have. And I’m not alone in that opinion. Obama lost 2/3 of the evangelical Christian vote in most states per the exit polls.

So here is my dilemma: I am on deadline to write a column on thankfulness and I’m not feeling very thankful. If you happen to be in the same shape, maybe you’d like to listen in on several things that I’m reminding myself of tonight.

I remind myself first that most people in the world don’t live in a democracy and have no say in how they are governed. But as Americans accustomed to freedom and prosperity, we forget that and fail to thank God for what we have. We fail to remember we did nothing to obtain it but were born into it. So I am thankful to have a part in the electoral process even when my candidate doesn’t win. I worship God and not the government and that helps put things in perspective.

The second thing I remember is that the New Testament saints lived under totally pagan governments. The apostles didn’t have a vote about what insane Roman emperor they lived under. Most of them were killed by government authorities. And things didn’t get better in the next administration or the next or the next. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, wrote in the third century: “If I could ascend some high mountain and look out over this wide land, you know very well what I would see. Robbers on the high roads, pirates on the sea…selfishness and cruelty, misery and despair under all roofs. It is a bad world, an incredibly bad world but in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are the masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people are the Christians and I am one of them.”

Cyprian’s words are still timely 18 centuries later. In the midst of our “incredibly bad world” many search for peace. The peace they want requires the world to change. But the world rarely changes for the better. I am thankful that there is a peace that transcends outward circumstances and I can have that peace when I appropriate it. In the upper room on the night He was betrayed, Jesus spoke of the persecution His disciples would endure. But He ended with an encouraging promise: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV).

The third thing I remind myself of is that Paul told us to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Bible commentator Matthew Henry knew how to do that. On the night he was robbed, he prayed: “I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life: third, although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed.”

Maybe the simplest way to say it can be boiled down to three words. When things don’t go my way, and when they don’t go yours either: thank God anyway.